The new Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 has come into force today. It places a duty on employers to take reasonable steps (“preventative duty”)to prevent the sexual harassment of their workers in the course of their employment by other employees and crucially, third parties.
Sexual harassment is conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating a worker’s dignity or creating for them an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
If a worker successfully brings a sexual harassment claim and the duty has not been met, the worker’s compensation could be increased by up to 25% as a result of non-compliance.
The preventative duty only applies to sexual harassment. It does not cover harassment related to a protected characteristic (including sex), nor does it apply to less favourable treatment for rejecting or submitting to unwanted conduct.
The duty requires that employers should anticipate scenarios when its workers may be subjected to sexual harassment in the course of employment and take action to prevent such harassment taking place. This may be a significant issue for Christmas parties. The hospitality sector is also affected where a high risk of potential third party harassment can occur.
If sexual harassment has already taken place, an employer must take all reasonable steps to ensure that it does not happen again.
The Labour Government’s Employment Rights Bill 2024 sets out further proposed amendments to the law on sexual harassment. The Bill suggests that the duty on employers to take “reasonable steps” be amended to “all reasonable steps”. This will significantly increase the extent of the duty placed on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. So look out for this in 2026.
Tom Redfern tredfern@redfernlegal.com
